Will Wagga Wagga and Tamworth play chicken with future food demand?

It was announced recently there’s ambitious plans for the NSW regional centres of Tamworth and Wagga Wagga to each reach a population of 100,000+. Each city currently has a population of around 41,000 and 64,000 respectively.

Here at Paddocks&Plates, we thought it’d be interesting to see how this converts into future food demands.

A GROWING REGIONAL FOOD DEMAND

Based on the 100,000 future populations of each regional city, this target adds another 59,000 people in living Tamworth and another 36,000 in Wagga Wagga.

Realistically, this future population figure could come from a combination of city/small town migration, international migrants, students and natural births etc.

But what does that look like in food terms?

PLANNING THE MENU

Let’s say for example that each person in both cities sits down to a basic dinner of a chicken breast, baked potato and a carrot – yes it’d be very boring and bland.

In one night, Australian food producers would need to supply these two cities an extra, 95,000 chicken breasts, potatoes and carrots.

Now it seems very simple, but even if these extra city residents ate that basic meal just once a week, this figure leaps to 14,820,000 additional food items – yes that’s over 14.5 million.

This example is just one meal a day, eaten once a week consisting of three basic food types.

Imagine what a full week’s food of three meals a day would be like on future food demand?

The purpose of the exercise is for us to all to understand that with population growth comes demand which also brings opportunities.

It’s something to consider the next time you read or hear about Australia’s population growth.

For a minute, don’t think about how packed the roads, housing, trains or beaches will be.

Instead consider how and where the food is going to come from that’ll be on your dinner plate or fast-food takeaway tray.